www.indiaearnings.com - May 22, 2007

Marck Biosciences Ltd, a leading manufacturer of parenterals for well-known Indian and global pharmaceutical companies, today entered the South India parenterals market. Marck Biosciences today launched in Karnataka a comprehensive range of quality products including common solutions, electrolyte replacements, antibiotic solutions, diuretics, anti-infective, anti-fungal drug therapeutics, eye / ear solutions, injectibles and inhaling solutions. The company will roll out its products across Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala by the end of 2007.

“Southern India accounts for almost 28% of the India’s Rs. 1600 crore parenterals market. We already have a strong presence in North and West India. The launch in South India is aimed at spearheading our plan to cross the target turnover of Rs. 100 crore in 2007-08. We are focussing on a dual pronged strategy of domestic market expansion and leveraging the large CRAM opportunity to grow exponentially in the coming year.”
says Mr. Bhavesh Patel, MD, Marck Biosciences.

In South India, Marck is targeting revenues of Rs 25 crore and a market share of 8%. "We plan to tap both the retail and institutional market through a network of distributors along with a strong team of field staff. We hope to have over 80 distributors to cover the market well,” says Mr. Patel.

“We are targeting to emerge as the third largest parenterals company in India and are investing Rs 72 crore at our existing manufacturing facility in Gujarat to increase its production capacity to 230 million units of SVP (Small Volume Parenterals) and 61 million units of LVP (Large Volume Parenterals), With this expansion we are geared to capitalize on the surging demand both from within India and from pharma companies looking to outsource their manufacturing to India to companies with a portfolio of quality products and a world class manufacturing facility.” says Mr Patel.

With the infusion of this investment, the total investment in the Kheda facility would exceed Rs 125 crore. Marck’s current production capacity is 65 million units for SVP and 29 million units for LVP.

Marck undertakes contract manufacturing of LVP and SVP for 48 of India’s Top 50 pharma companies. They include companies likeDr. Reddy’s, Torrent, Cadila, Themis, Zydus, Shreya, Glenmark, Ranbaxy, Sun Pharma, FDC, Macleods, Intas and Lupin. Marck’s international customer base includes several major international drug firms.